Reflections on the Data Analyst apprenticeship course

The Apprenticeships team spoke to Joana Lopes, who recently completed this course.

Joana Lopes, University of Oxford

Joana Lopes

Research and Professional Development Manager

Clinical Academic Graduate School (OUCAGS)

About Joana

I joined the University in 2012, as Research and Professional Development Manager at OUCAGS, the University’s Clinical Academic Graduate School.

At OUCAGS, I conduct monitoring and evaluation activities and Clinical DPhils Paths, a longitudinal study of the careers of doctors undertaking DPhils.

Before joining the University, I was at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) where I worked as Development Manager and, prior to that, as Research Manager.

My academic background is in psychology (BSc Hons; MSc).  

Why did you choose to do this Apprenticeship? 

I wanted to develop my knowledge and skills in the area of data analysis by learning new statistical techniques and to use a wider range of software for data analysis and visualisation. I found out from a colleague that they were doing an analyst apprenticeship at the University and, when I explored the types of analyst apprenticeships available on the Government’s website, I identified Data Analyst as being right for me. 

What did you get out of the Apprenticeship training? 

I gained knowledge and skills in a wider range of areas than I was expecting. Besides learning new statistical analysis techniques, R and Power BI, I learned, for instance, about relational-database development and database querying using SQL.  

About the training provider

Joana completed this course with our training provider Digital Native. We asked Joana why she believed they were a good fit. 

I did my apprenticeship with Digital Native. This was both for pragmatic reasons (it was easy to get to college for training days) and because with a smaller training provider there seemed to be more scope for personalised coaching. It was a good choice. 

What would you advise any other employees looking to go onto this course? 

I think it is important for aspiring apprentices to have a conversation with their line manager and training provider about how things will work in practice. This includes discussing expectations about the proposed length of the apprenticeship, off-the-job study time, and time on the job working on projects that will benefit the employer as well as contributing to the apprenticeship portfolio.  

For more information on this story, and any other questions, please contact the University Apprenticeship Team.